SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Thousands of students, teachers and social activists clashed with police in the Chilean capital Wednesday during a massive march against President José Antonio Kast’s education cuts and austerity measures.
Since taking office on March 11, ultraconservative Kast has pledged to cut roughly $6 billion in public spending over 18 months in an effort to improve the country’s fiscal accounts. As part of this ambitious austerity plan, his government is forcing a nearly 3% budget cut across all ministries.
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A student throws a Molotov cocktail at police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Police detain a student during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Police detain a student during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A student throws a Molotov cocktail at police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
An injured student is detained by police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
The measures have drawn criticism not only from opposition parties but also from some sectors within the governing coalition.
The march was organized by the Confederation of Chilean Students and supported by other organizations, including the Teachers’ Union, secondary school student associations, and feminist groups.
Although the march began peacefully, tensions escalated as clashes broke out between protesters and police. Officers used water cannons and tear gas to disperse crowds, while some demonstrators threw rocks and other objects. Several streets were blocked and multiple subway stations were closed.
“The government sought to provoke this, to create this situation to justify repression,” Mario Aguilar, president of the Chilean Teachers’ Union, said.
Demonstrators also rallied against the government’s National Reconstruction bill, a sweeping package of measures aimed at reducing state spending, encouraging investment and boosting Chile's economy.
The project, known as the “mega-reform” bill, was approved by the Chamber of Deputies late May and is now set to be debated in the Senate.
“They want to silence us, but we are not going to stop,” said Magdalena Correa, a 21-year-old student. “They’re taking away our resources and rights, and we have to fight back.”
Police and government officials have not yet commented on the clashes. However, Associated Press journalists observed at least a dozen arrests and several injuries during the unrest.
Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america
A student throws a Molotov cocktail at police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Police detain a student during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Police detain a student during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
A student throws a Molotov cocktail at police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
An injured student is detained by police during a protest against the government's proposal to lower the education budget, in Santiago, Chile, Wednesday, June 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)
Ewan McGregor, for a fleeting moment after “Trainspotting” came out, felt like a rock star.
It wasn’t his first significant project; it wasn’t even his first film with director Danny Boyle. And he was, in his words, fairly arrogant and cocksure at the time. But that kinetic film about four heroin addicts in late-1980s Scotland was and, 30 years later, remains defining — in his career, in the culture and in his understanding of what true artistic satisfaction can feel like.
“It’s very much in that early part of my career, and of course, even today, probably the most important piece of work that I was involved in, just because it had such a massive effect on my life. Not only because of what it did, but because of how it felt to make,” McGregor told The Associated Press in a recent interview. “It set the bar unknowingly high because it’s been quite hard to match ever since.”
Both McGregor and Boyle are a little wistful about the time, and what they made, on the eve of its 30th anniversary re-release. Starting Friday, a 4K digital restoration will be in theaters nationwide. Though “Trainspotting” was very much of its moment with its Britpop soundtrack, its Thatcher-era grit, its darkly comedic tone and shrewd blend of giddy highs and tragic lows, it’s also one that has stood the unforgiving test of time.
“You get kids coming up to you who are 17 who said they’d just seen it,” Boyle said. “I could be their grandfather … yet it still spoke to them.”
Boyle was a hot commodity after “Shallow Grave,” a 1994 black comedy about flatmates in Edinburgh starring McGregor, and Hollywood was calling. Literally. A peak-famous Sharon Stone cold-called him and asked if he’d want to come make a film with her. But he had his sights set on Irvine Welsh’s buzzy debut novel, teaming once again with screenwriter John Hodge and producer Andrew Macdonald.
The budget would be small, 1.5 million pounds or about $1.9 million, and the shoot would be quick and local. They didn’t know what they didn’t know: Boyle remembers asking his cinematographer, the late Brian Tufano, if they could use an anal probe camera for the “worst toilet in Scotland” scene.
“I remember him saying, ‘Well, Danny, yes, you can get that. But I’m not sure how Ewan and his family and agent will feel about that,’” Boyle said with a laugh. “He tempered my kind of extreme way of approaching this material.”
And somehow it all worked, driven by youthful energy, a bit of arrogance and a passionate commitment to the material.
“‘Trainspotting’ had to be made that way,” said McGregor, who was 23 at the time. “It would have been a disaster if it had been done differently.”
For McGregor, at least part of the vitality came from the fact that they were shooting on film; money was going through the camera on every take.
“We shoot on these cards now, and it just doesn’t matter anymore,” McGregor said. “There’s no natural sort of like rhythm to filmmaking like there used to be then. … I think back to ‘Shallow Grave’ and ‘Trainspotting’ and it feels almost like a different job.”
Boyle too has been chasing that kind of innocence ever since. He said he might have come close on his upcoming film “Ink,” with Jack O’Connell.
“It was liberating not having enough money because you don’t have that limitation of thinking, oh, that’s going to be too extreme for the studio or for the audience reach we’re meant to have,” Boyle said. “You could make it so that if it didn’t work, you just, you know, sulk away with your tail between your legs and call back Sharon Stone and say ‘I was wrong.’”
Like any film about drugs, there was a fair amount of discourse around its release. U.S. presidential candidate Bob Dole even denounced it, unseen, for romanticizing heroin during his campaign. But the film was in the conversation — and it had an enviable group of supporters, including Pulp frontman Jarvis Cocker and Blur’s Damon Albarn, both of whom provided songs for the film.
After “Trainspotting” became a hit, life changed profoundly for McGregor. In London, he said, “it was madness.” At the time he was sharing a flat with his co-star Jonny Lee Miller, Jude Law and Sean Pertwee. When they’d go out to clubs, they felt like rock stars.
“There was a real energy around it,” McGregor said. “We were part of that, you see, the Blur and Oasis and Pulp and The Verve and all of that amazing music that was happening then. We were the sort of movie version of it, I guess, because Danny knew what he was doing with the soundtrack and because the novel was so huge and current and … and maybe because it was ours. It was British and it wasn’t pandering to America. We didn’t make it for America.”
Boyle hopes that audiences take a chance on “Trainspotting” in the theater, whether they're revisiting it or seeing it for the first time. It was, he said, made with an absolute love of cinema.
“It’s very indebted to ‘Goodfellas,’ which also has that feeling of: You are here to be absolutely assaulted by an experience,” Boyle said. “You know, you have given us your money and you’ve given us your time to be here for 90 minutes, two hours, whatever it is, and we promise, we promise to deliver everything to you that we can.”
FILE - Director Danny Boyle poses in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 6, 2017. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - Director Danny Boyle poses in Beverly Hills, Calif., on March 6, 2017. (Photo by Chris Pizzello/Invision/AP, File)
FILE - John Hodge, screenwriter for "Trainspotting," left, director Danny Boyle, center, and producer Andrew Macdonald appear during a music video shoot in London on June 26, 1996. (AP Photo/Louisa Buller, File)
